Small pools seem oceans to his faulty vision.
If he can’t see the way, how then can he
Serve as your guide and lead you to the sea?
Once he joins with the sea, then from that moment
He can lead you like streams or like a torrent.
If now he calls to God, it’s imitation,
Not through His vision, aid, and revelation.
1815
The shaikh’s wife said, ‘If you now pity men
Like shepherds with their flocks, tell me why then
Do you not mourn your own son’s shortened life
Now death, the bleeder, has employed its knife?
The proof of sympathy is in the eye—
Why are your eyes without tears and stone dry?’
The shaikh turned to his wife and said, ‘O woman,
Winter is not like summer—that’s for certain:
Whether they’re dead or living still, how can
They ever leave the heart’s eye of this man?
1820
Since they appear here clearly in my view,
Why should I twist my face round just like you?
Though they now be beyond time, still near me
They keep on playing just as previously.
Weeping is due to separation’s pain,
But joined with my dear ones I still remain.
Others may see them in their sleep, but I
Can see them while awake with my own eye.
From this world I can hide myself, you see,
Scattering the senses’ leaves all from their tree.’
1825
Sensation’s intellect’s own prisoner;
Intellect’s spirit’s in ways similar—
The spirit sets the intellect’s hands free
And it resolves its problems easily.
Senses and thoughts are like weeds that flow past
On the pure water’s surface where they’re cast:
Intellect’s hand sweeps those weeds to the side,
So wisdom can see water which they hide.
The weeds are on the stream as a thick layer—
Once they’re swept off, water can be seen there.
1830
If God did not free intellect’s strong hand,
Due to desire the weeds would then expand,
Covering the water up—then all the while
Intellect would keep weeping and lust smile;
Once piety has chained desire’s two hands,
God then sets free the intellect’s strong hands.
Thus, powerful senses follow your decree
When intellect’s your master totally:
While you’re awake God makes your senses sleep
To make appear unseen things hidden deep
1835
Inside the soul; awake, through dream-like vision,
You then can open up the gates of heaven.
Story about how a blind shaikh would read the Qur’an in front of him and regain his vision as he read
Once in the past that shaikh saw a Qur’an
Inside the home of a blind holy man.
One summer he had been there as his guest;
Together there the two would talk and rest.
He thought, ‘How strange—there’s a Qur’an! But why
When this good dervish lacks a seeing eye?’
Then his bewilderment from this fact grew:
‘No one else comes to visit like I do!
1840
There’s a Qur’an on his shelf though he’s blind.
I am not wrong; I haven’t lost my mind!
Shall I ask? No. I should stay patient here
So that, through patience, my aims will appear.’
He held back; for a while he felt unease
Till he heard: ‘Patience is the key to ease.’
How Loqman saw Prophet David making iron rings, but refrained from asking him about it because he bore in mind that ‘Patience will lead to the resolving of the question’
Loqman once came near David and he saw
Him making rings from iron and felt awe.
He then observed as well that lofty king
Linking together every single ring.
1845
He’d never seen coat-mail being made before,
So he was curious to discover more.
‘With these joined rings what have you now created?’
Then he reflected, ‘Patience is the best
Approach, and reaches your goals earliest.’
When you don’t ask it is made manifest—
Patience’s bird is faster than the rest.
It will take longer if you choose to ask;
Impatience turns ease to an arduous task.
1850
Loqman stayed silent, so immediately
David’s work was completed, and then he
Put on the coat of mail that he had made
In front of patient Loqman, who had stayed.
‘This garment is so worthwhile, you should know,
For your protection from each combat blow.’
‘Patience is too,’ Loqman said once secure,
‘For it protects against pain you’d endure.’
Patience and truth are paired together, friend—
Read closely ‘By the time’* until the end!
1855
God has made numerous cures, but none can claim
They’ve seen a cure like patience all the same.
Remainder of the story about the blind man and the Qur’an
The guest was patient as he’d taken heed
And so the problem was resolved with speed.
That night he could hear somebody recite
The pure Qur’an, then saw a stunning sight:
The blind man reading it without a flaw—
He couldn’t wait more, so enquired in awe:
‘Amazing! How, blind man, are you reciting?
How can you possibly see holy writing?
1860
You have read out the verses of your choosing;
To keep your place your finger too you’re using—
Your moving finger proves that I’m not lying:
You see the script on which you are relying.’
‘You who’ve left ignorance,’ that man replied,
‘By God’s work why are you now mystified?
I prayed, “You from Whom we seek help in strife,
I’m hungry to recite as though for life.
I don’t know it by heart; when I recite
Grant my eyes vision through Your Perfect Light.
1865
For that short time return to me my vision,
So I can read Your Pure Book with precision.”
From God then came the cry: “Industrious fellow,
Who keeps faith in me during every sorrow,
You have good thoughts and live with the desire
That every moment you might hear, ‘Rise higher!’
Whenever you hold the Qur’an to read,
Or to inspect the texts if you feel need,
I will restore your vision at that moment—
Venerable man, to me you are important.”
1870
He has done this, so every time that I
Wish to read the Qur’an we magnify,
The One Who misses naught, for He’s informed,
The Noble King by Whom all things were formed,
That Peerless King restores for me my sight
At once like lamps which brighten the dark night.’
That’s why God’s Friends will make no protestation:
For what He takes He soon sends compensation.
If He burns down your vineyard, grapes are sent;
He sends you joy when He sees you lament.
1875
He gives a hand to someone who’s lost his
An
d makes hearts filled with grief receive sheer bliss.
Thoughts of ‘We won’t submit’ have gone away,
Since what is lost now He will soon repay.
Warmth comes without fire when He should desire,
So I’m content if He puts out my fire;
When He gives light without lamps, why should you
Fret if you lose your lamp as fools would do?
Description of some Friends of God who are content with God’s decrees and do not pray, ‘Change this decree!’
Hear from me now the following description
Of wayfarers who feel no opposition:
1880
They’re different from those saints who supplicate,
Who sew then tear, alter, and then rotate.
I know these other Friends of God whose station
Means that their lips are closed to supplication:
Due to contentment that these Friends possess,
Attempting to change fate’s unfaithfulness.
From fate they taste a special ecstasy,
So it’s unfaithful to seek liberty.
God’s made His good opinion of them known,
So they don’t wear dark mourning clothes and mourn.
1885
Bohlul questions a dervish
Bohlul once asked a dervish, ‘How are you?
Dervish, please tell me of what interests you.’
The dervish answered, ‘How should someone be
For whom the world’s work’s done perpetually,
For whose wish torrents and all rivers flow,
Whenever he should wish the stars all glow,
And for whom life and death are officers
Who move around whenever he prefers?
He sends condolences at times he pleases,
Congratulations too as hardship eases;
1890
If he wills wayfarers can move ahead
Or fall astray inside his snare instead.
In this world no mouth ever smiled, you see,
Unless it was approved as his decree.’
Bohlul said, ‘King, your words are true and blest,
For in your radiance this is manifest,
This and much more besides, veracious man,
But please explain as clearly as you can
Such that both wise and foolish people too
Will readily accept what’s claimed by you.
1895
Put it now into words appropriate
For ordinary men to benefit.’
The perfect speaker offers food for minds—
His table has food of all different kinds,
So that no guest will be without provision,
Each finding there the source of his nutrition,
Like the Qur’an, because its seven layers
Give common folk and the elite their shares.
The dervish said, ‘The masses understand
At least that this world follows God’s command:
1900
No leaf will ever drop off from a tree
Unless it is the King of Fate’s decree.
No morsel passes from the mouth below
Until God tells it, ‘Enter! You can go.’
Men’s inclinations form their reins which lead
The way desired by He Who has no need.
On earth as in the heavens, as you’ll learn,
No atom moves a wing and no leaves turn
Save by the Lord’s eternal firm command—
But how can one make others understand?
1905
Who can count all the leaves there on the branches?
How can mere speech encompass what is boundless?
Hear this much: the occurrence of each action
Is just by means of the Creator’s sanction,
And once the slave’s content with God’s decree,
He then becomes its servant willingly,
Not as a burden, nor for recompense,
But from his virtuous nature’s excellence.
He wants his life for his own sake no more;
A life of pleasure’s not what he lives for.
1910
Whenever God’s command is what dictates,
Life and death are the same to him as fates.
He lives for God’s sake and not for mere wealth;
He dies for God’s sake, not due to ill health.
His faith is for God’s sake; he aims to please.
That’s not for paradise with streams and trees.
For God too he abandons unbelief,
Not out of fear of hell, nor for relief,
And not through taking on forced discipline—
His nature was that way in origin.
1915
He laughs the moment he sees God content;
He views as sweetest candy fate that’s sent.
When God’s slave’s character takes such a form
To his command the world must then conform.
Why should he pray to God and remonstrate,
Saying: ‘O Lord, please change this bitter fate!’
His and his children’s deaths are not of note
For him, like something pleasant down his throat;
This faithful man compares their agony
With how sweets give poor old men ecstasy,
1920
So why should he resort to supplication
Unless he sees this cause God’s satisfaction?
His supplication and his intercession
Are not due to that pure man’s own compassion,
Which was consumed that day when from above
God lit up the bright lamp of His slave’s love.
Love is hell-fire for attributes—that flare
Has burned his attributes to the last hair.
How can night travellers fathom this distinction,
Except Daquqi,* who rose in this fortune?
1925
Story about Daquqi and his miracles
Daquqi was so handsome and well dressed,
Lover of God with miracles so blest.
He walked the way the moon glides by at night;
Through him night travellers’ spirits all grow bright.
For long in one place he would seldom stay,
Spending in every village just one day.
‘If I stay in one place two days,’ he said,
‘Love for that dwelling might then turn my head.
Don’t be seduced by dwellings, soul, take heed!
Travel to independence from all need.
1930
I won’t attach my heart to one location,
So it stays pure for its examination.’
By day he travelled and by night he prayed;
Falcon-like on the king his focus stayed,
Cut off from men, not due to bad within him,
Nor dualism born of egotism,
Compassionate to creatures, intercessor
Whose prayers would always soon receive an answer,
Refuge to good and bad and always generous,
Better than both your parents and more precious.
1935
The Prophet said, ‘Dear men, like fathers do,
Compassionately I sympathize with you.
Because you are all parts of me—why then
Separate small parts from the whole again?’
Once severed that part’s useless. Can’t you see
A severed limb’s just carrion tragically?
It’s dead unless it joins the whole once more;
Of life it has no knowledge any more.
Even if it should move, what would that prove?
The freshly severed limb can also move.
1940
And if the severed part falls, nonetheless
The whole won’t then become a portion less.
One can’t explain with words these mysteries;
Comparisons have their inadequacies.
Resumption o
f the story about Daquqi
The Prophet once compared his friend Ali
To lions, though he’s different actually.
From likeness, difference, and comparison
Head to Daquqi’s story now—move on!
That jurist–chief for his community
Excelled the angels too in piety,
1945
Moved with more measure than the moon; how jealous
Religion felt to see one so religious;
Though he would pray and show much piety,
He’d seek out God’s elite still constantly:
His main aim on his travels was to meet
For just a moment one of God’s elite,
So he would pray while travelling: ‘God, let me
Become familiar with that company.